Voith’s new ‘Seal Wear Monitoring’ system predicts a replacement date and is compatible with Voith’s HydroSeal sealing strips.

Heidenheim, Germany: Voith has developed a ‘Seal Wear Monitoring’ system which will make sealing strip replacement easier to plan in future. Used for the first time at Swiss company Model, it helps minimize unscheduled downtimes due to roll failure or sealing strip wear or defects. The technology is one of Voith’s innovations from its Papermaking 4.0 range and enables paper producers to also take a significant step towards ‘smart factory’ conversion.

Marc Erkelenz explains how the smart monitoring of the sealing strip works: “Our product automatically informs the client by email when a defined wear level has been reached and also predicts the residual service life.” Erkelenz is responsible for developing new products for roll service at Voith and has lead the Seal Wear Monitoring project.

The system installed in the pick-up roll continuously monitors the sealing strip wear and predicts a replacement date based on the data obtained. Following a second wear indication conducted subsequently for validation purposes, the system automatically adjusts this date if necessary. Fully automatically, and with sufficient notice, the monitoring system then emails this information to all relevant parties such as the paper manufacturer, maintenance provider or customer service at the respective Voith roll service center. The risk of a roll failure is thus minimized, and the roll change can be done during scheduled downtimes or safely postponed. This was the scenario at Model, a family-run company in Switzerland, where the first signal from Voith's Seal Wear Monitoring system was received in May 2016
along with a predicted date for a roll change.

Jochen Honold, Product Manager for mechanical roll service at Voith, sums
up the benefits for the customer: “This global innovation guarantees
scheduling that is based on facts and therefore reduces the risk of an
unexpected roll failure, which in turn avoids unnecessary costs. The
customer has enough time to plan the shutdown and ensure that sufficient
personnel are available to change the roll. In addition, a time window can
already be booked for the roll service in a Voith Paper roll service center.
This allows spare parts to be ordered in advance and the roll gets back to
the customer much sooner.”

Voith’s intelligent wear monitoring system with fact-based scheduling of any
necessary replacement represents a completely new procedure for planning
preventive roll changes. Until now, changes have almost always been done
on the basis of empirical values which do not, however, take account of the
actual condition of the rolls. The main reason for this is that following
installation of the wear parts it is not possible to check their condition at all,
or only with a great deal of effort. This is why the decision-making procedure
has been based on historical data and process or roll irregularities. The
result is that in many cases, a roll is replaced even though the sealing strip
system could have been used for longer. Thanks to the real-time data
transmitted by the Voith Seal Wear Monitoring system, paper producers and
maintenance providers can now decide on the timing of a replacement
based on factual evidence. In practice, this allows the possible wear
potential to be exhausted and therefore provides the option of extending
service life with minimal risk of breakdown. Swiss papermaker Model is
expecting the best case scenario to be a doubling of service life.

But even if the sealing strip wears sooner than expected, having real-time
data now ensures that such events can be identified and predicted, allowing
the operator to rectify them in good time. Seal Wear Monitoring therefore
helps in any case to minimize the risk of a failure of the suction roll and
consequently, a costly production downtime. Because the replacement is
planned, Model can also produce a long-term schedule for its servicing
activities and order all necessary spare parts at exactly the right time.

Moreover, the patented system is compatible with Voith’s HydroSeal sealing
strips which can reduce the lubrication water consumption of the suction roll
by up to 87%. The system can be readily installed in all suction roll types
regardless of age and manufacturer.

Model produces packaging solutions from solid and corrugated board at 12
sites in Europe, including the home of the PM 3, the Niedergösgen
production facility in the canton of Solothurn. The PM 3, on which the
innovative system was installed, produces 215,000 metric tons per annum
corrugated baseboard with basis weights of 120 to 170 g/m2 from recovered
paper on a working width of 5,200 mm.

The Seal Wear Monitoring system is a product from Voith’s Papermaking
4.0 range, which allows paper machine efficiency to be increased through
visualization, stabilization and optimization. The focus is on a modular
concept that can be tailored individually to the needs of each customer and
is independent of any existing process control system and the age of the
machine.

Voith Paper is a Group Division of Voith and is one of the leading partners
and pioneers in the paper industry. Through constant innovations, Voith
Paper is optimizing the paper manufacturing process, focusing on
developing resource-conserving products to reduce the use of energy, water
and fibers. Furthermore, Voith Paper offers a broad service portfolio for all
sections of the paper manufacturing process.

Voith sets standards in the markets for energy, oil & gas, paper, raw
materials, transport & automotive. Founded in 1867, Voith employs around
20,000 people, generates €4.3 billion in sales and operates in over 60
countries around the world and is one of the largest family owned companies
in Europe.**Without the discontinued Group Division Voith Industrial Services